Have a Question? 585-271-0050 |

STORE HOURS

M-F 9a-6p
Showroom Closed
May 27th, 2024
Memorial Day
Email Spoofing
28
August

How to detect certain Spoofing/Phishing/Spearfishing e-mails.

Review any suspicious message to see who sent the message.  Sometimes this is masked by Outlook or other client showing just the name and not the e-mail address.  If you open the e-mail it should show you the originating address.  Again, sometimes these are spoofed to look legitimate.

Below is a sample e-mail sent to one of our customers (I’ve blanked out her name), but you can see that the e-mail is coming from smoot.org – definitely not Microsoft.

Also look for bad grammar, mis-spellings and poor translation – “Syncing failed to go through” is a poor translation of “Your mailbox failed to synchronize”, and “due to invalidation” would be “due to invalid credentials”.

And, also when I hover over the link in the message, it is not taking me to any Microsoft site, but to a domain in New Zealand (.nz).

So, if we need to say it, DO NOT CLICK ON THE LINK, and then DO NOT ENTER YOUR PASSWORD.

If you really want to investigate further, you can look at the Properties of the message, and review where it came from.  This gets more difficult to read, but below is a message I received, and below it are the “Internet Headers” from the message.  You get to these by opening the message and clicking on File, then Properties.  In this case, the e-mail looks legitimate – the sent-from address looks OK, and there are no grammar or spelling issues that I see.  On the other hand, the Inspector General of the Small Business Association (SBA) would not be requesting this information.  And all the links and embedded images are being blocked.

So, I looked in to the Internet Headers – it shows that it originated in Japan, so definitely not the SBA.

Related Post

Make Microworx Your IT Company. Visit Us Today!

Microworx offers a wide variety of IT services to home users and small enterprises. We provide carry-in and on-site computer repairs, upgrades, purpose-built PCs, virus removal, data recovery, network and security solutions for Windows, Mac and Linux desktops, laptops and servers. Need service? Visit our scheduling page, call 585-271-0050, or visit our showroom and repair center at 20 Allens Creek Rd (located near the corner of Allens Creek and Monroe Avenue) – right off the 590 exit for Monroe Ave. If you can’t bring it in, we also offer pick-up and delivery service for a small fee.